Personal Glory

         "All of them?" Questioned Wraith, picking more dirt from between his fingernails.

         Argul's attention was focused on the outside tidings of Winter lightly tapping the ground with snow. "Yes, all of them. Is that so strange?"

         "In the business of torture, isn't it best to leave a finger or two? Just in case maybe you didn't get all of the information from the suspect?"

         "My methods have worked so far," replied the black clad Shadow Reaver almost dismissively. He seemed to be waiting on something, anxiously flipping a shuriken about his fingers. "Then again, it occurs to me the convenience of letting your enemies have something more to lose. Gives them hope, however small it may be."

         Wraith frowned, leaning back in his seat now with folded arms. "That's not entirely what I mean. You sound like..." The voice of understanding was too heavy this time. The words trailed away, attempting to be a forgotten insult.

         Argul did not have to hear the rest of the thought. "Like I'm on the wrong side of the tracks?"

         The fellow assassin gave an uneasy grin to the assessment. "That's one way of putting it."

         "If you're going to defeat your enemies, you have to think like them at some point."

         "Thinking like them often begets becoming them. You would do well to remember that."

         The one in black shrugged. "I don't remember what I had for breakfast, let alone how to keep my thoughts in check. I'm well enough knowing I'm not a saint; I am at least on the side of justice."

         "Justice - that's a pretty word."

         "It's all just a game, Wraith. Why give it so much thought?"

         The fellow assassin, having sat for several hours with his brother in arms, felt as though he was speaking to a misty mirror, a blurred imitation of himself. Argul was every bit as cunning as he was, but there were bits and pieces of his persona that jarred the line between enjoying a simple video game and unprejudiced enjoyment of rending human flesh.

         "I give it thought only because you concern me. You're the only one who hasn't joined Rising Pheonix, and you hardly ever group with us anymore. I'm surprised you're even part of the restoration effort."

         "It was by Magic Bro's request. I wouldn't be here if he didn't ask me to be. Plus, I'm being paid."

         That gave Wraith pause. His dagger hit the table, a vexation taking hold of him. "He's paying you?"

         "Yes."

         "By all that is..." He breathed, counted to five, and continued with a calmer tone, knowing Argul was not one for heated words without whetted blades. "What kind of friend asks for payment on a restoration campaign?"

         "I didn't ask for payment. Hell, I even insisted that he didn't pay me. I said that if he needed to pay me, then I didn't need to be here."

         "And what'd he say in response?"

         Argul regarded Wraith for the first time in hours, furrowed brows betraying the hurt in his expression. It was a pain that was not quite old, but not a freshly weeping wound either. "'We really need the help, and it's the only way I think you'll feel obligated.'"

         Wraith bit his tongue, swallowing the tinge of emotion that his ally had sent his way. The implication was clear, and it was one that had been floating amongst the group for some time, obviously without the notice of Argul. "You should join Rising Pheonix. We're small now but--"

         "Lia's missing!"

         Not entirely nonplussed by the intrusion, the two ninjas looked to the adjacent entryway as the faded wooden door was nearly knocked off its hinges by a flustered K. Wolfe. Dressed in his usual scholar's coat and adorned with the more-than-decorative lightning blade upon his belt, he waved his arms in a state of obvious panic.

         "No one's seen her in twenty-four hours," he explained.

         Wraith's concern was practically tangible. The chair he had sat upon was toppled over, and he was upon the young strategist in less than a second. "Be calm, Wolfe. We'll find her so long as we man a search. Where was the last place you saw her?"

         With a newly measured tone of level-headedness, K. Wolfe did his best to recollect. "On the outskirts of the village. She was guarding the front gate from the mobs. That was her last assignment, and now no one can find her."

         "I'm sure she can take care of herself until we find her. She can't have gone far," Wraith said, taking his younger comrade by the shoulder. "Let's assemble the crew and put a plan together. We'll have her found by dusk."

         Argul, who had remained pointedly silent during the exchange, withdrew the shuriken along his fingers and spoke his piece. "We will find her sooner than that. Rescue is the issue."

         Both individuals appraised the assassin's words with careful glares in his direction. They knew there was more, and they knew he wasn't going to say more until one of them asked.

         Wraith was the more direct one, after all. "You're certain of this because?" He was already expecting an answer he would not like in the least.

         "I told her there was a fountain of meat to the south, and that she could help herself to it as long as she brought as much she could back to the village. I gave her a map with a location, and she left almost immediately."

         "You lied to her?! You lied to Lia about food?!" K. Wolfe screamed with little concern for the shaking walls, and open windows. It was nearly impossible for the boy to get angry, but his surprise yielded toward such. "Please, tell me you didn't--"

         "Weren't we just going over something like this?" Wraith, to his credit, seemed even less amused. "You knew Lia would jump at the chance for food. You knew even better that she would do it to help others. The worst part of this, Argul, is that you knew she would unquestioningly trust you." The agonized scowl turned to a new thought; one of dismay and worry. "Why did you lie to her? What's in that forest?"

         Realizing the two had advanced on him with clenched fists, gnashing teeth, and everything short of bared steel, Argul sighed knowingly and walked between them. "We should assemble. I'll explain myself to everyone. I don't much enjoy repeating myself."

         The sound of the door creaking upon its ragged hinges was sobering enough that the two followed.

         Z, Rhivaun, and Zawind were already in the foyer of the newly established inn of the village when their comrades joined. Given the silence with which they carried themselves, they knew something dire was afoot. Argul was still purposely silent and brooding, and K. Wolfe seemed more troubled than the seething Wraith.

         "What did you do?" Asked Z first, folding his arms and looking squarely at Argul.

         "What makes you think..." began the Shadow Reaver.

         Z knew Argul better than anyone in the room, even though he had known him the least. "It's your fault Lia's missing, isn't it?"

         When the assassin fell silent again, it was answer enough.

         Rhivaun was adjusting the crystal upon his staff, as impassive as ever to words, but more concerned with action. He had taken a place leaning against the wall near the inn's entrance while assessing events. "And you were just beginning to grow on us again..."

         Zawind's eyes darted from the fighter to the assassin. He seemed to share K. Wolfe's sorrow, while absorbing Wraith's palpable anger. When he settled his gaze upon the fellow assassin, he decided upon anger. "What did you do?"

         Z went back to the bench where his great blade lay. "What was that? Three days? Yeah, you went three days without royally fucking us over. I'll give you credit; you set and break your own records pretty frequently. Ninjas are the type for surprises after all."

         Argul put up his hands, clearly sensing that a defensive posture was necessary to quell a tide of anger. "Let me explain myself at least. Maybe if you hear my reasoning..."

         "I may still want to break your thumbs." Wraith was brandishing a dagger, knowing the settlement they were in was not entirely classified as a city just yet. He could kill Argul just once, let him respawn, and then let him tell whatever lame story he had thought up.

         "Diokles," said the masked man dressed in cloth the color of coal. There was a reverant quiet at the mention of the name. "I sent Lia to be captured by Diokles."

         Zawind stifled a shout of raw fury, then spoke as coherently as he was able. "You are not helping your situation right now, my fellow ninja."

         "Look at that. You broke another record." Z shouldered his great blade with casual intent.

         The distraught assassin moved passed all of them and leaned against the main counter of the foyer, pocketing his hands. With yet another sigh and dismissal of the growing tension, he went on. "While I may not group with you all as consistently as I used to, I know that you all share a certain history with him. Since the fall of Shadow Pheonix, he's gone on to start a new guild known as Reservoir."

         Rhivaun nodded. "Get to the new information. Primarily the stuff involving you."

         Argul inclined his head. "This settlement you all have sunk your gold into; it just happens to be a two-day walk from Diokles's newest base of operations. I tracked him as best I could..."
         "Which is why you happened to be passing through." K. Wolfe was putting it together, likely faster than his words were letting on. "You were going to try to take him on by yourself, but you accepted my offer because..."

         The ninja in black could tell that to K. Wolfe the story was a lined chart, simply missing a dot that he could adjoin to other lines. "Simple. It would be easier if I had help. I knew he was somewhere to the south, but the weather conditions make it nigh impossible to go it alone, not to mention the dire wolf mobs are all equal to my level, and they never attack alone. Then, of course, there's the effort of actually finding the fortress in such heavy snow."

         Wraith was only partially convinced of the necessity of betrayal. "So you enlisted the unwitting help of Lia because it was easier than going it alone?"

         "I suppose 'easier' is the wrong word. What I should say is 'possible.' Even if I did manage to brave the snow and wolves, once I found the fortress, I'd have to deal with Diokles himself, and there's no telling what kind of preparations he's made for an outside attack."

         "You could've found the fortress and come back to tell us its whereabouts," offered Wraith.

         "I'd have to brave the wolves and snow twice over, likely getting me killed. Last I checked, you all haven't built a church here yet, so I'd lose precious time respawning half the realm away and making the trip back. I have reason to believe Diokles changes his fortress every two weeks. If I'm keeping track carefully, we have about four days to find him."

         A grave silence took hold of the five listeners, all of them realizing the grim necessity of Argul's actions once explained. It was an unsure thing as to whether or not he could be believed, let alone trusted, but everything he said made enough sense.

         When no one responded, he spurred a response with more reasoning. "Diokles has to be stopped. He has no respect for the natives. The very cause you all are building here is what he would aim to destroy. He's subjugated a whole plot of land somewhere out there and he'll undo all the work you've put in here for Near and her people!

         "If it makes you feel any better, I'd have sent any of you in Puny One's place. I'd have told Z there was a hefty supply of high level mobs and superior crafting materials in the forest, or I'd tell Magic Bro that a lost tome of strategy had found its way there. River Oaks would be money, Wraith would be snow-nymphs or some such feminine desire, and Zawind would be a runic short sword. I'd have easily sacrificed any of you to achieve the goal of saving this and every land like it in the realm. Diokles isn't just a PK threat; he's a threat to everything good in this game. If you can't see that, then I'll go with my original plan and fight him alone, die in the process, and let him run freely."

         More silence. The Shadow Reaver had not given them much time to think on the implications of Diokles as a true threat, but one thing was for certain - Lia needed to be saved. If Diokles was there to get in their way, then they would indeed be killing two birds with a single stone in any case. In one way or another, the group had thought of it as such.

Gradually, they exchanged nods, Z being the most reluctant. Though he had joined Rising Pheonix, he enjoyed anonymity and singular objectives almost as much as Argul.

         Almost. "All right, all right," Z muttered, unceremoniously raising his hands in mock surrender. "Sign me up. We'll save the dragon girl."

         K. Wolfe would have one last word, however. "We're not done here, Argul."

         To which the assassin nodded on his way out the door, with no particular weight of emotion in his eyes.

         As always, thought the Master Strategist, guarded to the end.